Adjustable brake-rod.



G. H. WILLIAMS, JR. ADJUSTABLE BRAKE ROD.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 17, 1910.

1,019,872. Patented Mar. 12,1912.

FIG. 2.

M-rxvasses INVLNTOR an mas h. MLL/ /ws Jr.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES H. WILLIAMS, J 3., OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO CHICAGO RAILWAY EQUIPMENT COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

ADJUSTABLE BRAKE-ROD.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES H. VIL- LIAMS, Jr., a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Adjustable Brake-Rods, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which Figure 1 is a sectional view through a truck showing my improved adjustable brake rod in position. Fig. 2 is a side elevational view showing the manner of adjusting the rod, and Fig. 3 is a top plan view of the same.

This inventionrelates to a new and useful improvement in an adjustable brake rod for use in railway trucks, the object being to provide the brake rod with means whereby its length can be adjusted to com pensate for wear of the brake shoes or reduction in the diameter of the truck wheels. In modern railway practice, steel wheels are goworn they are trued by grinding their surfaces, which results in reducing their diameters. A wheel originally thirty-three inches in diameter may be reduced to thirty inches in diameter by such grinding and truing practice, and when this is done the lessened diameter of course changes the relation of the brake rigging to the wheels.

It is therefore the purpose of my inven tion to provide means whereby the brake rod which connects the brake levers or other parts ofthe brake mechanism may be adjusted as to its length.

Another important object of my invention is to compensate for variations in brake beams. On one of the large railroad systems two brake beams are used in which the relation of the pin-hole to the face of the shoe differs of an inch, and if the bottom connection, together with the dead lever stop and truck rigging, is arranged to take care of one beam, it will not allow satisfactory application to the other on ac count of the difference in the lever pin-hole location. It will be seen that {t of an inch difference makes 1% inches difierence in the two beams on the truck and if the bottoms of the live and dead levers are held mg into general use, and as these become Patented Mar. 12, 1912.

Serial No. 587,582.

by a fixed bottom connection and the pinholes are separated 1% inches .or brought nearer together L1, inches, the angularity of the lovers will be so affected as to seriously interfere with the efficiency of the brake and also absorb the allowance made in the dead lever stop for wear of the brake shoes, etc. By the use of an adjustable bottom connection providing a possibility of moving such bottom connection ends outwardly or inwardly to correspond with different locations of lever pin-holes in the brake beams, it would be possible to establish, as is proposed to do under the conditions under consideration, a single standard beam which could be used in place of the double standard beam now employed, by the use of two bottom connections or by the use of the adjustable bottom connection herein contemplated.

I am aware that turn buckles have been employed heretofore for adjusting the length of brake rods, but these turn buckles can only be employed where the rod is placed under tension in service. My improvement contemplates the adjustment in the length of a rod which is designed to be placed in compression in service. Of course the rod may also be placed under tension with my adjustable connection, as the connection between the centers of the rod is equally strong under both pulling and compression strains.

In the drawings, 1 and 2 indicate the sections of a rod used to connect the lower ends of the brake levers 3 and 4, respectively, which rod sections are united together in the length of the rod by an adjustable connection formed preferably by making the contiguous ends of the sections into male and female members, the adjacent faces of which are provided with interlocking ribs and recesses arranged at an angle to the line of stress. One of these members is preferably provided with a slot (the male member being so provided, as shown in the drawings), while the other cooperating element is provided with registering openings through which passes the clamping medium preferably in the form of a bolt and nut, 55. To adjust this rod it is only necessary to remove the bolt and disengage the coopcrating elements by lateral movement, when they may be adjusted in a new and desired relation each to the other, the assemblage tion being provided with an elongated slot, a bolt passing through the integral jaws of the first section and through said slot, in such manner that said slot is covered by said integral jaws, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aflix my signature in the presence of two witnesses, this 27th day of September, 1910.

CHARLES H. WVILLIAMS, JR. Witnesses:

E. T. WALKER, M. F. HUN'rooN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G. 

